3.
Grid word wrapping working + column moving + resizing.
4.
Grid working so you can edit.
5.
x /y/ filter lists can be edited.
Couldn't figure out problems with average readership yet?"
View Parallel Citation
In evidence, the third respondent confirmed that he was aware of the problem and that he was working on it at the
time.
The applicant further selected a few criteria at random and showed that certain of the results tabulated on the
results screen were incorrect, the results being 2, 3, 4 or 5 times greater than they should have been. The third
respondent explained that this was due to the fact that he had not "cleared his variables", that only a minor
program adjustment needed to be made, and that the problem would have been dealt with prior to 31 July 1998.
The evidence of both the third respondent and Jordaan is that by 31 July 1998 the program was complete in
terms of its core functionality. By core functionality is meant the ability of the program to read and interrogate the
raw AMPS data to be found on the binary disc, to select any criteria (questions), and to calculate crosstabulations
on these questions. This functionality, they say, was achieved as early as June 1998. In his evidence, Jordaan said
that by midJune 1998 there was a "functioning beta version" of the program. He explained that in programming
one finds an alpha version which only has partial functionality, a beta version which is functional but remains to be
tested for errors, and a final version.
The work on the program and databases of Project AMPS began during March 1998. The third respondent worked
continuously on the project for five months up to 31 July 1998. From the documentation, it is apparent that the first
sale of the Data Explorer program was made on 1 September 1998. In other words, after less than one month's
further work on the project, the program was on the market as a functional product. This indicates that what had
been achieved by 31 July 1998 was not insignificant, and ties in with the evidence of the third respondent and
Jordaan that by the 31 July 1998 the program was complete in terms of its core functionality. The fact that the
applicant considered the program ready for the market at the end of August 1998 does not tie in with his statement
in the founding papers that he was the "architect and creator" of the Data Explorer program and that it was
"only after I left the employ of Brewers Almanac (Pty) Ltd that I concentrated, on a full time basis, to develop this
product."
Page 85 of [2004] 4 All SA 67 (C)
Jordaan stressed that it took time to develop a program that could read the binary file and show the results to
the user:
"Die eenvoudige rede hiervoor was dat die UFL file moes in struktuur leer ken word en daar moes met in goeie Engels
trial and error probeer word om die rekords te rekonstrueer totdat hulle in leesbare vorm aan die gebruiker gewys word.
So ek sou sê dat daar heelwat werk in is om dit reg te kry."[sic]
The amount of effort and time the third respondent expended to achieve this result prior to 31 July 1998 is evident
from his evidence.
The position after 31 July 1998
The applicant's case is that the true development of the program, which he styled Data Explorer, occurred after 31
July 1998. It is, therefore, necessary, to evaluate the changes that were made to the program after 31 July 1998.
View Parallel Citation
It would seem that two principal changes were made. One was the manner in which the raw AMPS data in the
UFL file was converted. In the Project AMPS software, with each query, the UFL file was read to memory to find the
appropriate record. This was a slow process because the binary form of the file had to be read from beginning to
end with each query. The major change that came about was that a new converter program was developed which
made it possible to write the answers of all queries into two new tables known as Answers.db and Weightings.db.
Adjustments were made to the front end of the program so as to read such tables, rather than the raw data from
the UFL file. It is common cause that the program of the new converter was written by the third respondent.
The second major change was the incorporation, as is apparent from Exhibit "A", of several new databases as
part of the program. Most of these databases consist entirely of structure, and unlike the Questions.db table they
need not be "populated" with data by a person prior to the use of the program. Thus the Answers.db and
Weightings.db tables are filled with data by the converter program. This is an automated process based on the
existing AMPS data.
It will be recalled that the applicant seeks copyright protection for the whole of the Data Explorer program, source
code, executable file and databases, all of which, he contends, assumed copyrightable form only after 31 July 1998.
In my view, the contention is not supported by the evidence from which it is apparent that the developments after
31 July 1998 were improvements and refinements of the existing Project AMPS program.
The applicant may have expended time, effort, skill and expense on improving and refining the software. It is,